Cold Feet.

When I made my way to the tent I immediately found the familiar faces of the pack women. I greeted Emily with warmth and cooed over her 3 year old daughter Michelle. I reintroduced myself to Rachel who gracefully ignored my complicated past with her younger brother and offered her my help in setting the plates. I found a pregnant Kim who was already placing napkins and forks to each setting, and I waved to her. She smiled at me from above the floral arrangements, her cheeks ruddy and her belly full, looking happier than I could imagine possible. We chatted easily about the past couple of years. I hadn't seen either of them in about five years and they were eager to hear what I was doing in California. Rachel just moved back to the reservation. Kim and Jared married shortly after high school.

We were in the middle of lining up the wine glasses when I noticed a rather large truck pull into the lot above the beach.

"Oh, that'll be Dad," Rachael said, looking up from setting down exquisitely carved wooden serving plates. "I'll be right back girls, just sit tight."

I looked up from my adjustments and studied each setting, realizing that not only were the serving dishes carved, but so was everything else that was not glass and silverware. The wood color varied for each plate size, dark teak for the small bowls, cherry red for serving platters, and almost bone-white for the dinner plates, mimicking the brightness and shellacking until it gleamed like fine china. I picked up one of the napkins and inspected the beautifully inlaid wood and burnished copper ring surrounding the cloth. At first I just admired the quality of it, thinking that it was something I would pick up at a boutique in the more affluent district of the city. But as I got closer I found that there was a name inscribed in the copper—I picked up another napkin ring. Another name.

"Kim!" I called, rushing over to her side holding both napkins. She gave me a funny look, appearing more concerned about my ruining her presentation than my distress.

"Yes Bella?"

"Were these personalized?" I held up the napkins for her inspection.

She jerked her head away instantly and I brought my hands back to a more suitable level, a little embarrassed at my overzealousness. She wrinkled her nose and shook her head. "Ugh—that smell. Sorry I'm so sensitive now that I'm…you know. Copper makes me nauseous."

"Sorry," I hastened to mumble.

She beamed at me and I realized what people meant by a maternal glow.

"S'okay. Yeah—they were all handmade with inscriptions. The dishes too."

I shook my head and looked around at the fifty odd place settings. This must have cost Charlie and Sue a fortune! No wonder they wanted a low-key wedding—they were splurging on the gifts and food. It was strange. Charlie was never tight-fisted with money, but I couldn't imagine him choosing to spoil his guests with dinnerware. And then I remembered that Charlie hadn't planned the wedding reception at all...

I looked over to the direction that Rachael had run in and felt my heart sputter.

Billy wheeled from the passenger side of the truck with his daughter, her hand on his shoulder, smiling brightly at him while he let out a booming laugh. I sucked in a breath, hoping that I could stomach what came next. From behind the cab of the truck I could see an odd shaped lump floating above the roof. It moved around to the side, and finally into view. I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding.

Jacob walked to the passenger side of the car with a giant rolled up rug balanced against his shoulder. He held it there easily as he walked with his sister and father, nodding to them, smiling when they did. He and Billy were dressed in surprisingly formal clothing for the event, both men wearing slacks and collared shirts. I couldn't take my eyes off of the trio as they made their way from the parking lot to the ramp located a few yards away. I bit my lip when Jacob bent over and unfurled the rug, laying it down at the end of the planks and rolling it to the dining area. Billy waited patiently at the end with Rachael, talking softly and watching as Jake worked. Once he finished he tucked the corners of the broad carpet down with some sand and then jogged back to his family. I watched as Billy grasped his son's hand in thanks and then began to wheel forward on his own, Rachael and Jacob close behind.

"Oh my God," I whispered, feeling tears well up in my eyes. I turned away so that I didn't have to look at the approaching party. I clapped a hand to my mouth, hoping that I could force down the strangled cry that clawed its way up my throat.

Kim touched my arm softly as I took in a deep breath, trying to calm myself down. My shoulders trembled as I hunched forward, furiously wishing that I could be invisible. As if she could hear my thoughts, Kim graciously stepped to my side, obstructing my view of Jake and hopefully their view of me. She was by no means a big girl, but her swollen midsection was big enough to draw the eye away from my pathetic, cowering frame.

"Bella—" she whispered to me gently. "Bella, do you need to leave?"

"Yes," I managed to squeak in anger and relief, hating my voice for betraying my weakness. She nodded in understanding and quickly took the napkins from my shaking hands.

"Go," Kim told me, understanding softening her bright eyes. "But please tell someone if you're going to leave the beach—there's a reason we have so many wolves these days."

I gave her a wide-eyed look and she just jerked her head towards the back of the tent where my freedom lay. My curiosity about the pack numbers was almost greater than my fear of Jacob—but not quite. I rushed off with a quick 'thank you' and took long, awkward strides to the back of the tent. I shimmied out between the white curtains and felt the sand beneath my feet once I was free of the dining room floor. I broke into a run. Some of the guests who arrived early and lounged beyond the tent turned to watch me go. I didn't care. I was in full panic. I lost a shoe in the sand but I didn't stop to pick it up. I had to get as far away from here as possible so that I could collect myself. If Jake saw me break down…

"Bella!"

I gasped, and ran harder. It wasn't easy to do in the sinking, shifting sand with a short and delicate dress on, but I'd be damned if someone was going to catch me before I could get a moment to myself. There went my other shoe.

"Bella—stop!"

I could see a cave up ahead where the sand faded into rocks and amassed to a long jetty extending out to the gray-blue ocean. I could hide in there for a while maybe, until I collected myself. The darkness was uninviting and the waves looked like they sometimes reached far up the shore and into the mouth, but I'd take what I could get.

Whoever was chasing me caught up to me before I realized it. I felt iron-wrought arms swoop me up by the waist right as I was leaping for my next stride. Well damn me, I guess.

"Let me go!" I screamed, pushing and straining against the body that tried to hold me captive. Whoever it was threw me over his back caveman style, trapping my legs down with one arm and balancing me on their shoulder with the other. I felt the feverish heat of werewolf skin against my own and it only served to fuel my need to break free.

"Bella stop! Stop it!" It was a command, not a request. It was Embry.

"What the hell is going on? Why'd she start running?"

"Um, she does that sometimes."

I paused in my frantic but useless struggle to find Quil, Seth and Merrit jogging up to us from behind. I craned my head around and noticed that the guests from the tent were watching. I dropped my face into Embry's shoulder with a sigh. My first day back with the pack and I was already causing a scene.

"Shit," I groaned in defeat. I stopped flailing and took a moment to catch my breath.

"That's the spirit," Quil snarked with a shit-eating grin. I threw him a dirty look.

"Bella, I'm going to put you down now," Embry cautioned. "You think you'll be okay?"

"Yes, Embry I'll be fine," I huffed with obvious malice. I heard the other wolves chuckle.

"You're not going to run?"

"No."

"Are you going to faint?"

"No."

"Are you sure? Because I remember you—"

"Embry Call put me down now or I'll tell Charlie about the time that you broke into the girl's dorm at—"

"Okay! Okay! Jesus—" Embry unloaded me from his arm and dumped me unceremoniously onto the sand. I staggered but he gripped me under the arms to help me gain my bearings at the last second.

"Whoa--hooo Officer Call," Quil grinned maliciously. "What'd the chick say?"

Embry growled at him. "Nothing. There was a misunderstanding. It was fine."

I scoffed. Misunderstanding was a delicate way to put it. Embry had nearly torn off a poor girl's door after breaking in through the main hall of the dormitory. When he found out that she'd gone on a date with another student from the University, he raced to Seattle to confront her. Jacob had to drag him out of there that night—

I swallowed and ducked my head, pretending to look down in the sand.

"Looking for these?" Merrit asked. He shoved a pair of shoes under my nose and I looked up in surprise. He smiled at me again, that same warm melting look that he gave me before. He chuckled. "Maybe if you had kept them on you would have outrun us all."

I took them back quickly and avoided his invasive eyes. "Th-thank you." I bent down to put them on so they wouldn't see my bright red face.

Seth came forward and gave me the most annoying look of brotherly concern. "Bells, you gonna be okay?"

"I'm fine," I snarled softly. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Calm, calm, calm…I felt nothing at all like it. I blew out a long gust of air and opened them again. Ignoring the males standing around me, I began to adjust my strapless dress and smooth out the mussed parts. If Theresa screamed at me for what happened to it I'd throw a shoe at her. She couldn't yell if I explained that I was running to save my sanity.

"Cinderella," Quil drawled, breaking into my peace. "If you're done, can we please get back to the ball now?"

I shot him a murderous glare and he snapped his mouth shut. Merrit grinned, tempting me to shut him up too if he so much as cracked a joke about the weather. I was in no mood. It was embarrassing enough to have the members of the pack come to find me—Jake would see it all as soon as thry phased. But to add injury to insult, half the guests had witnessed my flight as well. Time to sack up like I'd told Charlie and face the music.

"So sorry to ruin your special day Quil," I snapped, my rattled nerves causing my patience to wane. "I didn't realize this was your wedding."

He gave a harsh laugh. "No, just your father's."

That shut me up.

As much as I hated to admit it, Quil was right. I was being a selfish, spoiled brat trying to make Charlie's big day into my own little pageantry. I shook my arms out, flexing my fingers and trying to find the courage to smile and pretend to be happy--for Charlie. I wasn't sure that it was there, but I would rather drown myself than let my father see how much of a coward I was. He already had to deal with me running away to San Francisco so that I had an excuse not to come home. Today was his wedding day. I owed him this.

"Alright." I steeled myself, reinforcing my nerves with false bravado. "Let's get this over with."


Enter Jacob Black....